Ministry of Education
SERB-STAR Award goes to 8 Bengalis Across the Country
IISER, Kolkata, Pune and Bhopal bag SERB-STAR Award for Outstanding Contributions in Field of Science
Kolkata, December 20, 2021
Dr Sayan Bhattacharya, Professor, Chemical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research , Kolkata is one of the recipients of this year’s SERB-STAR Awards. The other scientists included, Dr Rajib Kumar Goswami, Professor, Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, Dr Santanu Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science , Dr Sutirth Dey, Professor, Department of Biology, IISER, Pune, Dr Samriddhi Sankar Ray, Professor, Department of Physical Science, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR, Dr Hirak Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, Biophysical Chemistry, Sambalpur University, Dr Pinaki Prasad Bhattacharjee , Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, IIT, Hyderabad and Dr Sourav Datta, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, IISER, Bhopal.
SERB Science and Technology Award for Research  is a prestigious award instituted by SERB  to recognise and reward the outstanding performance of Principal Investigators  of SERB Projects. SERB has been supporting basic research in frontier areas of science and engineering through its various programs and schemes. The number of researchers under the ambit of SERB has increased over the years and they contribute significantly towards the progress of science and engineering in the country through their research endeavour. SERB-STAR is an initiative to acknowledge such exemplary contributions in research and also to motivate the PIs of ongoing projects for outstanding performance.
Dr Sayan Bhattacharya’s research interest comprises an interdisciplinary research on functional nanomaterials. His current research interests are:  Photovoltaics: Nanocrystal-assisted Metal-halide Perovskite Solar Cells;  Electro-catalytic and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation, N2 & CO2 Reduction;  Zinc-air Battery and Photorechargeable battery.
Dr Rajib Kumar Goswami’s research topic is asymmetric synthesis of bioactive natural products, development of methods for novel organic transformations and evaluation of bio-medicinal application of natural products and their variants.
Dr Santanu Mukherjee’s research interests revolve around various aspects of enantioselective catalysis, with particular emphasis on the development of new catalytic enantioselective transformation.
Dr Sutirth Dey’s topic of research is investigating the ecology and evolution of populations and communities.
Dr Samriddhi Sankar Ray’s topic of research is the interface of non-equilibrium statistical physics and fluid dynamics. In particular, his research interests lie in fundamental and applied problems of turbulence and turbulent transport.
Dr Hirak Chakraborty’s topic deals with  the role of membrane compositions on the oligomerisation of membrane‐bound peptides and  developing broad‐spectrum peptide‐based membrane fusion inhibitors.
Dr Pinaki Prasad Bhattacharjee research revolves round Crystallographic texture, deformation and restoration behaviour of metallic materials, bulk ultrafine and nanostructured materials by severe plastic deformation processes and structure-texture-property relationship in such materials and application of high resolution Electron Backscatter Diffraction  and Transmission Electron Microscopy  techniques in materials characterisation.
Dr Sourav Datta’s research interest revolves round root hairs as a model to study cell growth in plants, root hairs as a tool to improve nutrient assimilation under low nutrient conditions, symbiotic interactions between root and soil microbes to enhance plant growth and productivity and the role of the B-box family of transcription factors in light signalling in plants.